There's nothing better than showing up to work, signing into AIM, and engaging with a sexy stranger, right? Those are the principles America was founded on! But how to know if you're talking to a heartless chatbot? Make 'em laugh!

Yes, the robot-people may be all around us, looking like us and talking like us, but they don't get our jokes! It defies their logical circuitry*. Tell 'em a knock-knock joke and you'll hear their servos strain. "A priest and a rabbit walk into a bar..." and sparks will start shooting out of their ears.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in a online chat with someone you think might be a computer program, but you're not 100% sure, I recommend joking around. That should sort things out pretty quickly. This morning's chatbot wasn't as smart as others, but it's still a good example of using humor for chatbot subterfuge, and it should work on all of them. The funny-bone is the humanoid's Achilles heel. (Click to hugenate.)